P: Luke 24:1-12 “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” 

HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!! This such a wonderful piece of scripture for Resurrection Sunday. I hope you all read and ponder it, in it’s entirety. But for this blog, as the last blog of our Lenten season I am only going to focus on one verse. Verse 11.

O: We at times can pull our hair out reading through the Bible at what seems so crazy and so easy to understand. The Israelites marching through the dessert. They saw their God deliver them from Pharaoh and in such a short time they were back to their old ways and worshipping other Gods. Or like this passage, who else besides the disciples saw more first hand accounts of what Jesus did and heard what He said? And still they thought this to be an idle tale, and they did not believe. I cannot be the only one to think “What do you mean you don’t believe!!! WHAAAAT!” They saw for years all that Jesus can do, and still they doubted. How can that happen?  For if I saw Jesus’ actions first hand I of course would believe! But haven’t we all seen Jesus actions first hand over and over and yet we will still find ourselves in moments of disbelief? We see Him help us overcome the seemingly impossible, or we see love so pure and unconditional that its source could be from no other than God? I could go on and on about the miracles we all have seen throughout our lives, and yet we find ourselves in the same boat as these disciples.. as these fishers of men. Jesus has died and now He is resurrected! He will task these men, and all believers to carry out His work in advancing the kingdom. So why do we struggle with this so much? We have one job, just one! We struggle for the same reasons the disciples did; we are flesh, and this flesh is in constant struggle with the spirit God has bestowed upon us. There is a spiritual war going on inside of us, and we cannot win on our own. Our constant failure and doubts are a great reminder of how much we truly need to rely on God, and on Him alone! 

A: I feel like this is the application of all applications. If we can ever get this in our hearts, the rest will fall into place. We have God’s Word, which is God. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We are not simply reading a collection of idea tales, or good moral based stories. We are reading the unfiltered truths of who God is, and how He wants His people to operate. This is not just words on paper, but this is the living truth, the living God! If we cannot grasp the fullness of what we have, we will never truly believe without doubts, and God knows this. That is why he is so quick to forgive. That is who He is! When we are faced with doubt or trial we may go back to His Word, and find strength, find hope, and find peace. He has all we need, and He tells us this repeatedly, over and over. We are just like the frustratingly sinful characters of the Bible that make us want to pull our hair out! Their weakness and ours in the same. We need to believe and through our belief may we reach out to others in trouble and give them aide, just as has been done for us!

P: Heavenly Father, I pray today that you remind us we have died. Died to sin, died to our own flesh, died to temptation, died in your blood. But through your blood we die, we also join you in resurrection of life. Help us to remember this. Help us stay strong and help us to continue to believe in what you have already done, and continue to do. We are not alone, for you reside in each one of us. Help us to not forget your truths, and to not be persuaded by the evil one to doubt the promises you give to us. I pray today that we do not just celebrate our resurrection through your resurrection on this day alone, but everyday you give us that we remember the gift of life you have given us. Help us to remember what this new life should look like and forgive us when we do fall short of this goal. We pray your spirit floods into new areas of this world that are still living in the ignorance like the gentiles, so their eyes too may be open. We thank you entirely for what you have done, and will continue to do, and thank you for choosing us, in this time, on this day, in this place. We are not where we are by accident. Help us to realize what you have planned for us right where we are! Thank you Lord, Thank you! For You are risen, Risen indeed! Amen!!!

Jeffrey Thompson